A device for recording information writes marks in a track on a record carrier of a re-writable type. The device records the information according to a predefined recording format like DVD for constituting a recording area containing user data preceded by a lead-in zone. The device has a formatting unit (36) for formatting the record carrier. First it is detected if the record carrier has been recorded before. If so, a size is determined of a pre-existing contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area. The formatting includes writing data on the record carrier indicating that the recording area does not contain user data. Formatting status information is provided on the record carrier indicating the size of the pre-existing contiguously written area.
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9. computer program stored on a computer readable medium, which program is operative to cause a processor to:
initiate recording information on a re-writable record carrier according to a predefined recording format for constituting a recording area containing user data preceded by a lead-in zone located at the start of the recording layer, and initiate formatting, the formatting comprising writing data on the record carrier indicating that the recording area does not contain user data, and initiate providing on the record carrier status information indicating a size of a contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area in dependence on detecting a pre-existing contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area, wherein the predefined recording format includes a shortened lead-in starting at a shifted starting position beyond a predefined starting position and/or ending at position before a predefined ending position, and wherein the shifted starting position is 23.4 mm radial.
8. Method of recording information on a record carrier of a writable type by writing marks in a track on a recording layer via a beam of radiation, the recording layer comprising a pretrack pattern indicating the position of the track, the method comprising recording the information in the track according to a predefined recording format for constituting a recording area containing user data preceded by a lead-in zone located at the start of the recording layer, and formatting the record carrier, the formatting comprising writing data on the record carrier indicating that the recording area does not contain user data, and providing on the record carrier status information indicating a size of a contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area in dependence on detecting a pre-existing contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area, wherein the predefined recording format includes recording a shortened lead-in starting at a shifted starting position beyond a predefined starting position and/or ending at position before a predefined ending position, and the shifted starting position being 23.4 mm radial.
10. device for recording information on a record carrier of a re-writable type by writing marks in a track on a recording layer, the recording layer comprising a pre-track pattern indicating the position of the track, the device comprising:
a recording device configured to record the information in the track according to a predefined recording format for constituting a recording area containing user data preceded by a lead-in zone located at the start of the recording layer, and
a processor configured to control writing data on the record carrier indicating that the recording area does not contain user data, and configured to provide on the record carrier status information indicating a size of a contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area in dependence on detecting a pre-existing contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area, wherein the processor is arranged to control recording of a shortened lead-in starting at a shifted starting position beyond a predefined starting position and/or ending at position before a predefined ending position, wherein the predefined starting and ending positions are defined by a recording format, and wherein the shifted starting position is 23.4 mm radial.
1. device for recording information on a record carrier of a re-writable type by writing marks in a track on a recording layer via a beam of radiation, the recording layer comprising a pre-track pattern indicating the position of the track, the device comprising a head for providing the beam, recording means for recording the information in the track according to a predefined recording format for constituting a recording area containing user data preceded by a lead-in zone located at the start of the recording layer, and formatting means for formatting the record carrier, the formatting comprising writing data on the record carrier indicating that the recording area does not contain user data, and providing on the record carrier status information indicating a size of a contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area in dependence on detecting a pre-existing contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area, wherein the formatting means are arranged for recording a shortened lead-in starting at a shifted starting position beyond a predefined starting position and/or ending at position before a predefined ending position, in particular the predefined recording format being DVD and the shifted starting position being 23.4 mm radial.
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The invention relates device for recording information on a record carrier of a writable type by writing marks in a track.
The invention further relates to a method and computer program product for recording the record carrier.
The invention in particular relates to formatting the record carrier.
A device and method for recording an optical record carrier are known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,281. The record carrier has a pre-track pattern constituted by a guide groove, usually called pregroove, for indicating the position of tracks in which the information is to be recorded. The information is encoded according to a predefined recording format (for example DVD, Digital Versatile Disc) and represented by recording optically readable marks. The pregroove is meandering by a periodic excursion of the track in a transverse direction (further denoted as wobble). The wobble may be varied in period according to additional information such as addresses. A recording device is provided with a head for generating a beam of radiation for scanning the track and writing the marks. At first use a blank record carrier is provided with a predefined amount of control data to indicate the status of the record carrier. Further some data may be recorded in the recording area, for example file system information. Initializing the record carrier as indicated is usually called formatting.
When the record carrier is to be read in a playback device designed for prerecorded discs, such a playback device will, according to the predefined recording format expect a fully recorded disc, in particular not containing blank areas. Such blank, unrecorded areas are usually called ‘ice’, because a playback device that cannot detect the pregroove will loose control when trying to read an ‘iced’ area. In the US document a method of formatting the record carrier is described, in which a contiguously written area is created starting from the beginning of the recording area, usually called de-icing. A parameter indicating the end of the contiguously written area and further administrative data on the de-icing are stored on the record carrier as status information. A problem of the known formatting is that writing the contiguous area takes a considerable amount of time, causing annoying delays for the user.
Therefore it is an object of the invention to provide a device and method for formatting a record carrier for preventing delays when the record carrier needs to be prepared for use in a playback device.
According to a first aspect of the invention the object is achieved with a device for recording information on a record carrier of a re-writable type by writing marks in a track on a recording layer via a beam of radiation, the recording layer comprising a pre-track pattern indicating the position of the track, the device comprising a head for providing the beam, recording means for recording the information in the track according to a predefined recording format for constituting a recording area containing user data preceded by a lead-in zone located at the start of the recording layer, and formatting means for formatting the record carrier, the formatting comprising writing control data on the record carrier indicating that the recording area does not contain user data, and providing on the record carrier status information indicating a size of a contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area in dependence on detecting a pre-existing contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area.
According to a second aspect of the invention the object is achieved with a method as defined in claim 6. According to a third aspect of the invention the object is achieved with a computer program product as defined in claim 7.
The effect of the measures is that a re-writable disc that has been formatted earlier will be re-formatted very quickly, because the contiguous area is not written again. This has the advantage for the user that the disc will be ready for playback immediately. Further unnecessary wear of the record carrier and recording device is prevented.
The invention is also based on the following recognition. The record carrier needs to be readable on existing reading devices, for example DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) players. The reading devices will perform a disc loading procedure in a predictable way; in particular the playback devices require a contiguously recorded area of a predefined size, e.g. up to a radius of 29 mm in a DVD. In the current implementation of DVD+RW data drives, the format command results in re-writing the lead-in area and thereby “forgetting” the state of the disc (the last recorded address is reset, along with the end-user pointer in the control data zone and the de-ice tables). Hence when a re-writable disc is to be formatted by a user command, the inventors have seen that valuable information is lost if the record carrier is treated as a blank record carrier by resetting the lead-in zone and other control data to a virgin state. Such a virgin state requires a lengthy process of writing dummy data up to the predefined size when the user prepares the record carrier for use in playback devices (“DVD-ROM Compliant”). By maintaining the pre-existing control information about the de-icing state of the record carrier unnecessary delays are prevented.
In an embodiment of the device the formatting means are arranged for said detecting by retrieving status information indicating a size of a contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area. This has the advantage that the size of a pre-existing contiguous area is easily established.
In an embodiment of the device the formatting means are arranged for said providing by maintaining the status information as retrieved in the event of a previously written record carrier. This has the advantage that the status information corresponding to the actual status of written areas of the record carrier is re-used. The response to a format command will be very quick because no control data and no dummy filling data need to be recorded.
Further preferred embodiments of the device according to the invention are given in the further claims.
These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated further with reference to the embodiments described by way of example in the following description and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
In the Figures, elements which correspond to elements already described have the same reference numerals.
During readout by scanning the wobble modulation is detectable via a second type of variations of the radiation, such as variation of intensity in the cross section of the reflected beam detectable by detector segments or additional detectors for generating tracking servo signals. Detecting the wobble for a tracking servo system is well known from the above mentioned CD-R and CD-RW system. The wobble modulation is used to encode physical addresses and control information, for example as in the DVD+RW system and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,538,982.
The device is provided with recording means for recording information on a record carrier of a re-writable type, for example DVD+RW, according to a predefined recording format for read-only type record carriers such as DVD. The recording means cooperate with the head 22 and front-end unit 31 for generating a write beam of radiation, and comprise write processing means for processing the input information to generate a write signal to drive the head 22, which write processing means comprise an input unit 27, a formatter 28 and a modulator 29. For writing information the beam of radiation is controlled to create optically detectable marks in the recording layer. The marks may be in any optically readable form, e.g. in the form of areas with a reflection coefficient different from their surroundings, obtained when recording in materials such as dye, alloy or phase change material, or in the form of areas with a direction of polarization different from their surroundings, obtained when recording in magneto-optical material.
Writing and reading of information for recording on optical disks and formatting, error correcting and channel coding rules are well-known in the art, e.g. from the CD or DVD system. In an embodiment the input unit 27 comprises compression means for input signals such as analog audio and/or video, or digital uncompressed audio/video. Suitable compression means are described for video in the MPEG standards, MPEG-1 is defined in ISO/IEC 11172 and MPEG-2 is defined in ISO/IEC 13818. The input signal may alternatively be already encoded according to such standards.
The control unit 20 controls the recording and retrieving of information and may be arranged for receiving commands from a user or from a host computer. The control unit 20 is connected via control lines 26, e.g. a system bus, to the other units in the device. The control unit 20 comprises control circuitry, for example a microprocessor, a program memory (computer readable medium) and interfaces for performing the procedures and functions as described below. The control unit 20 may also be implemented as a state machine in logic circuits. According to the invention the device has a formatting unit 36 coupled to the control unit for formatting a record carrier under the conditions as described below. In an embodiment the formatting function is implemented in a computer program for a PC having a recording unit, e.g. a DVD+RW drive.
The recording means, including control unit 20, formatter 28, and modulator 29, are for recording the information in the track according to a predefined recording format for constituting a recording area containing user data preceded by a lead-in zone located at the start of the recording layer and followed by a lead-out zone located at the end of the user data.
A recordable disc initially is a blank disc without any data, only having a pre-track pattern as described above with reference to
The recording device is provided with a formatting unit 36, for example implemented as a function of the control unit 20. The formatting of a blank record carrier according to the DVD+RW recording format is as follows. The formatting is inter ala required for preparing the record carrier for playback on a reading device that cannot detect the pre-track pattern.
The disc shall be considered fully formatted if all areas in the recordable zone called Information Zone have been recorded. The Main data bytes in the ECC blocks can contain relevant data or can be set to dummy data (all bytes (00)). The disc shall be considered partially formatted if at least a number of zones called the Inner Disc Test Zone, the Inner Drive Test Zone, the Guard Zone 1, the Reserved Zone 1, the Reserved Zone 2, the Inner Disc Identification Zone, the Reserved Zone 3, the Reference Code Zone, the Buffer Zone 1, the Control Data Zone and the Buffer Zone 2 in the Lead-in Zone have been recorded. To indicate the status of the disc, the Disc Identification Zones shall contain a Formatting Disc Control Block (FDCB) (see
Formatting can be done in different ways:
Initialization shall always be applied to a maiden disc, while the other steps are optional. During initialization control data indicating the status of the record carrier is recorded, for example the FDCB (see
De-icing is the process of recording ECC blocks in the Data Zone. During the de-icing phase, unrecorded areas in the Data Zone shall be filled with ECC blocks containing all (00) bytes or with User Data when requested. All recorded areas shall be registered in the Formatting bitmap of a Formatting Disc Control Block (FDCB) in the Inner (and Outer) Disc Identification Zone. During the time intervals when the drive is idle, the De-icing process, controlled by the drive, can proceed in the background. When the application requests disc access, the De-icing process is suspended and the control of the disc is returned to the application. Application requested writes to previously unrecorded areas shall be registered in the FDCB. During background De-icing the drive should keep the FDCB updated. When an eject is requested during background De-icing, the drive shall update the FDCB before ejecting the disc.
Finalizing is performed when the De-icing process has finished and all areas in the Data Zone have been recorded. The drive shall add the Lead-out Zone and the Lead-in Zone shall be finished by adding the Initial Zone
Verification is the process of reading and checking all ECC blocks in the Data Zone. If an ECC block is found unreliable, this block can be replaced using a Defect Management system. A Last Verified Address (LVA) pointer in the Formatting Disc Control Block (FDCB, see
Physical Sector 0/bytes D0 to D3—Content Descriptor
In a third step 65 (Write Lead-In) control data is written on the record carrier in areas that are predefined to contain information according to the predefined recording format, for example certain parts of the lead-in area In an embodiment the control information includes a parameter indicating that the recording area does not contain user data, for example an end user data pointer as defined in DVD and shown in
In an embodiment the formatting means 36 are arranged for writing data on the record carrier indicating that the recording area does not contain user data as follows. Dummy data blocks are written in at least one predetermined address range that is known to be used for storing file system data. As the file system will try to retrieve its file system data, it will retrieve the dummy data instead, and will assume that the record carrier is an empty record carrier. For the dummy data a suitable data is blocks filled with zero data. In an embodiment formatting means 36 are arranged for said writing dummy data as follows. Dummy data is written in a first predetermined address range at the beginning of the recording area and/or a second predetermined range at the end of the recording area as the at least one predetermined range of addresses. In practical file systems the beginning and/or end of the recording area are used to store predetermined elements of file system data, for example around so-called anchor points. By setting the address ranges to be filled with dummy data at a size overlapping the ranges used by substantially all commonly used file systems, the dummy data writing can be done without taking into consideration the type of file system that previously has written data on the record carrier. Hence the address ranges are based on address ranges known to be used for file system data by a plurality of file system versions.
Finally in a step 66 (Write FDCB) on the record carrier status information is provided indicating a size of a contiguously written area that extends from the beginning of the recording area The indicated size is based on the size detected in the second step 63. For example the ‘last written address’ parameter may be maintained unchanged in a Format Disc Control Block (FDCB as shown in
In an embodiment a control data block containing the ‘last written address’ parameter is not overwritten at all, but maintained as recorded earlier. In an embodiment a control data block containing the ‘last written address’ parameter is overwritten by a new control data block, in which other control parameters are adapted, e.g. the Drive ID parameter in the FDCB of
In an embodiment, in response to the format command for a previously written disc, the drive does not reset the disc administration in the lead-in and resets the end-user pointer in the control data zone as described above. For a blank disc, the drive writes a shortened lead-in. The lead-in which the drive writes will start at 23.4 mm and not at the lowest address, required by the DVD-ROM standard of 22.9 mm. This saves 44 seconds for a standard speed (1×) DVD writer. Further only areas containing control information are recorded in the lead-in. By not having to zero-fill areas in the lead-in, except the administrative areas, in the region from 23.4 to 24.0 mm, a (1×) DVD writer saves 30 seconds. In an embodiment the lead-in areas not recorded for the shortened lead-in are recorded by filling in zero data in a background mode during later recording sessions.
Although the invention has been mainly explained by embodiments using optical discs according to the DVD standard, the invention is also suitable for other standards like BD (Blue-ray Disc) and other record carriers such as rectangular optical cards, magneto-optical discs or any other type of information storage system that has a pre-applied track pattern on a writable record carrier. It is noted, that in this document the word ‘comprising’ does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps than those listed and the word ‘a’ or ‘an’ preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements, that any reference signs do not limit the scope of the claims, that the invention may be implemented by means of both hardware and software, and that several ‘means’ or ‘units’ may be represented by the same item of hardware or software. Further, the scope of the invention is not limited to the embodiments, and the invention lies in each and every novel feature or combination of features described above.
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